Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY-SA 4.0More historic than 88% of U.S. towns. What drives it
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 244 buildings. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1888 on, and the census since 1880.
The Island Heights post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1887.
More historic than 88% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Island Heights is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
New Jersey towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New Jersey town has 3.7 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Island Heights’ 1,419 sits above most of its state (98% of New Jersey towns have fewer) while its 244 historic buildings outnumber those of 94% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Island Heights’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1900 and 1920, then grew 8-fold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Island Heights’ Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Island Heights.
Island Heights was incorporated as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on May 6, 1887, from portions of Dover Township (now Toms River Township), based on the results of a referendum held on November 18, 1886.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveYacht club dock at racing time
In the archiveBeach structure2 decades in the archive, from the 1930s to the 1970s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2024Wanamaker Field, Island Heights, NJ, Dec. 2024
2024View of Island Heights, NJ from Pine Beach, Dec. 2024
2024Island Heights, NJ post office, Dec. 2024
2024Island Heights, NJ police station, Dec. 2024
2024Island Heights, NJ land art, Dec. 2024
2024Island Heights, NJ first aid squad, Dec. 2024
2024Island Heights, NJ fire company, Dec. 2024
2024Island Heights, NJ borough hall, Dec. 2024Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Island Heights. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Island Heights.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Island Heights’ page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Island Heights itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Island Heights post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1887.
Island Heights is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
One place: the Island Heights Historic District (listed 1982).
39% of Island Heights’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.5 points), against a typical 15% for a New Jersey town; the median home was built in 1956.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (11), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1933
1978
